Revitalise News Updates

Trout in the Classroom 2010

20 Jan 2010

Trout in the Classroom is a multi-award winning hatchery scheme initiated in schools within the valley of South London's River Wandle. The project has now been rolled out countrywide with Doctor David Bellamy as the illustrious and enthusiastic President.

Self contained hatchery units comprising chiller, aquarium, pump and related equipment are installed either just before or after Christmas into an appropriate classroom location. In February approximately 250 Brown Trout or Salmon eggs are delivered with Environment Agency permission. Under teacher supervision a group of chosen children oversee the hatching, nurturing, feeding and general progress of the fry for up to 12 weeks prior to release with great ceremony into their local river. The number of fish surviving to release stage is in part dependant upon the children's engagement with the project.

Last year three schools took part in this scheme through Revital-ISE; All Saints in Wellingboro, Brambleside in Kettering and Havelock Junior in Desborough. The project ran with mixed success due to a few problems maintaining water temperature, however a good number of fish were released into the River Ise. This year Robin Field, Revital-Ise Project Officer has initiated the project again, and is confident that the schools will achieve even greater success!!

One of the schools participating again this year is Brambleside Community Primary School in Kettering. Evelyn Clawson, science teacher at Brambleside commented on the project,

"Thank you so much for offering these opportunities to enrich our science curriculum. These projects offer so many exciting learning opportunities for the children".

You can read more about Brambleside's involvement with Trout in the Classroom and also find out about the life cycles of trout on their Eco Schools web page.

Further Information ...

Conservation Walks Along the River ISEThese walks have been provided under the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs' farm conservation schemes as managed by Natural England, which help farmers and land managers protect and improve the countryside, its wildlife and history. It is permissive …

Revital-ISERevital-ISE is a partnership project that has been launched to improve biodiversity, access, recreation and leisure in the area, encouraging the local communities' involvement. This project will endeavour to implement improvements along the length of the Ise valley with the …

Plug Planting with Natural-IseThe Natural-Ise group, who look after the newly created Ise Valley Parklands in Kettering, are to start work on planting large amounts of native wildflower plants along the River Ise.